Watch out, big cities – the suburbs are coming for you.
According to Census data and other housing reports, population growth in cities is starting to shift toward the suburbs. Since a large part of a city’s residents are usually renters, this means the rental market is booming in American cities located just outside major metro areas.
So we wondered: To which suburbs are the most renters flocking? Although they’re often eclipsed by the big cities they’re near, these smaller cities are some of the most often searched on ApartmentGuide.com.
1. Troy, MI
With 12,402 searches on Apartment Guide between April 8 and July 8, 2014, this suburb of Detroit is the top-searched non-major city on the site. With a population of more than 80,000, Troy has been ranked one of the safest cities in the nation as well as one of the most affordable, making it a pretty great place to live.
2. Abington, MA
Just 20 miles southeast of Boston and 26 miles northwest of Plymouth, MA, Abington is full of history — it was part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 1700s and recently celebrated its 300th birthday. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority – commonly known as The T — has a stop in Abington, which makes it extra-easy to get into the city for work or play.
3-5. Arlington, VA; Alexandria, VA; and Silver Spring, MD
These three suburbs of Washington, DC, fall just outside the District’s boundaries but are inside the loop of I-495. Full of busy commuters into the nation’s capital, Arlington is the home of the famed Arlington National Cemetery; Alexandria is the site of the Department of Defense; and Silver Spring has undergone a downtown redevelopment over the past decade.
Although it’s only been an incorporated city since 1991, Lake Forest is also one of the safest cities in the country. It has two manmade lakes and a forest of eucalyptus trees that give the Los Angeles suburb its name, and it’s also the headquarters of eyewear manufacturer Oakley.
Located on this historic Pennsylvania Main Line, this suburb of Philadelphia is the home of Lankenau, Bryn Mawr and Paoli Memorial hospitals, as well as Villanova University and several seminaries. The many trains and buses that run through the city make transportation easy.
Just south of Norfolk, Chesapeake is actually the second-largest city by land area in Virginia. The northern part of Chesapeake includes urban areas where residents commute into Norfolk, but the southern part is all farmland, forests and wetlands. Chesapeake extends as far south as the Virginia/North Carolina border.
Part of the Phoenix metro area, Scottsdale is Arizona’s place to party, with many clubs, restaurants and hotels to enjoy. Unsurprisingly, tourism is the city’s biggest employer, with plenty of sightseers flocking to the area during winter to escape the cold weather elsewhere in the country.
10. Irving, TX
Located just northwest of Dallas, Irving is home to several major businesses, including ExxonMobil, Citigroup, Verizon and Allstate. It’s also the headquarters of the Boy Scouts of America.
Methodology
Apartment Guide tracked the 100 cities that received the highest number of searches on the site between April 9 and July 8, 2014. This list identifies the top 10 cities from that list that are suburbs, meaning they are located near a major city.